Former U.S. President Donald Trump announced Thursday that if elected, he would create a government efficiency commission to audit the entire federal government, an idea suggested by billionaire Elon Musk, who the former president says would lead it.
The commission is the latest attention-grabbing alliance between Trump and Musk, who leads companies including Tesla and SpaceX and has become an increasingly vocal supporter of Trump's bid to return to the White House.
The Republican presidential nominee, speaking to the Economic Club of New York, said at Musk's suggestion, he would "create a government efficiency commission tasked with conducting a complete financial and performance audit of the entire federal government," with the Tesla and Space X CEO as its chief.
Trump claimed that in 2022, "fraud and improper payments alone cost taxpayers an estimated hundreds of billions of dollars."
He said the commission would recommend "drastic reforms" and develop a plan to eliminate fraud and improper payments within six months, which he said would save "trillions and trillions of dollars."
"This commission will develop an action plan to totally eliminate fraud and improper payments within six months," Trump said.
"We need to do it," he added. "Can't go on the way we are now."
If he's elected in November, Trump also promised to immediately issue a national emergency declaration to achieve a massive increase in the domestic energy supply and eliminate 10 current regulations for every new regulation that the government adopts.
"I look forward to serving America if the opportunity arises," Musk wrote on X, the social media platform he owns. "No pay, no title, no recognition is needed."
Musk – who has said he previously voted for Democratic candidates – has thrown his weight and considerable wealth behind Trump since a gunman tried to assassinate the former president at a rally in July.
Musk has a history of sparring with regulators, as when the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) required vetting of his Twitter posts following 2018 tweets that the agency characterized as "false and misleading."
Other Musk initiatives, such as his pursuit of autonomous driving technology, also face oversight by government agencies.
Trump told the group of executives and industry leaders in New York he wants to lead a "national economic renaissance" by slashing regulations to boost energy production, embracing cryptocurrencies and drastically cutting government spending as well as corporate taxes for companies that produce in the U.S.
Trump spoke to the same group eight years ago, and on Thursday, he touted his economic accomplishments while in office, including jobs created on his watch, cuts on taxes and regulations, and his efforts to renegotiate trade deals.
His visit came a day after appearing at a town hall on Fox News, where he argued that his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, would drive large companies away from the U.S. if she won the election.
Trump has previously floated the idea of chopping the 21% corporate tax rate to 15%, but on Thursday clarified that would be solely for companies that produce in the U.S. The corporate rate had been 35% when he became president in 2017, and he later signed a bill lowering it. Trump has also proposed not to tax tips or Social Security income.
Trump and Harris, the Democratic nominee, want to take the rate in opposite directions while arguing that each is better than the other for American business. It's one of the many ways the two major party nominees have laid out sharply different views on the economy, a critical issue in this year's election.
Trump had a slight advantage over Harris on which candidate would better handle the economy, according to an AP-NORC poll conducted in August. Some 45% of adults said Trump would do a better job, and 38% said Harris.
Harris calls for raising the corporate tax rate to 28% from 21%. Her policy proposals this week have been geared toward promoting more entrepreneurship, a bet that making it easier to start new companies will increase middle-class prosperity.
Economists have warned about Trump's plans to impose tariffs that he says would return manufacturing jobs to the U.S. Some have said such taxes on imports could worsen inflation, though he is vowing to cut down costs. Inflation peaked in 2022 at 9.1% but has since eased to 2.9% as of last month.
"Some might say it's economic nationalism. I call it common sense. I call it America First," he said on Thursday.
President Joe Biden's administration preserved the tariffs on China introduced under the Trump administration and banned exports of advanced computer chips to China.
Harris favors a top capital gains rate of 28%, whereas Biden has wanted to nearly double the existing rate to 39.6% on investors making more than $1 million. Both also want to increase a separate tax rate on investment income.
On Thursday, Trump attacked Harris' proposals on banning price gouging and accused her of embracing Marxism and communism.
"She wants four more years to enforce the radical left agenda that poses a fundamental threat to the prosperity of every American family and America itself," he said.
In New Hampshire on Wednesday, Harris called for expanding tax deductions tied to the expenses of starting a business and set a goal of 25 million applications to form new companies over the next four years.